A public diary on themes around my books

February 12, 2005

Google's Long Tail

On Tuesday Google had their analyst day, which was focused on articulating their strategy and explaining the underlying dynamics of their remarkable success. I've described Google as a "Long Tail company" before, so I was delighted to see that this is the way they now describe themselves, too. You can watch the webcast here (the image above is slide 10) The San Jose Mercury News report (free reg req'd) on the meeting also discusses the Long Tail strategy.

What Google has done is to find and monetize the Long Tails of both advertisers and publishers. These include millions of small companies and individuals who may never have advertised before, at least not nationally. They were considered sub-scale--too small to be worth a call or visit from an ad salesperson, possible too small to even think of themselves as an advertiser at all. But Google ads are self-service, cheap, and performance based (pay-per-click), which all combine to dramatically lower the barrier to entry.

Matching these advertisers are hundreds of thousands of previously sub-scale "publishers", from blogs to niche commercial sites. Most are too small to have their own ad sales business, but they can now run relevant Google ads by just adding a few lines of HTML to their site. About half of Google's business now comes from such "partners", rather than from ads sold against search results themselves.

Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, explained how these millions of small-to-midsized customers represent a huge new Long Tail ad market. "The surprising thing about The Long Tail is just how long the tail is, and how many businesses haven't been served by traditional advertising sales," he said. Google now has revenues of more than $1 billion a quarter, a least half of which is made up of Long Tail advertisers by this definition. This is, needless to say, just a glimpse of what's still to come.

» Google's Tail - from Docu-Blog/Steve's POV
When a phrase works, it works. Now it seems like "The Long Tail" has been around forever. And companies are referring to it as if everyone knows the concept and agrees that it's basic reasoning is sound. It is. And now the latest to jump on the bandwag... [Read More]

Tracked on February 13, 2005 at 06:45 PM

» The Long Tail and Google from Northwest Noise
Google gave a prying eye into their assessment of The Long Tail and their business model, via The Long Tail. Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, explained how these millions of small-to-midsized customers represent a huge new Long Tail ad market.... [Read More]

Tracked on February 14, 2005 at 12:39 PM

» Folk Music Saved by M$ from Odd Quanta
In 1948, Moses Asch founded the Folkways Label, which went on to create "one of the richest treasure troves of recorded Americana", according to Ben Sisario at the NY Times. When Asch died, the Smithsonian purchased the collection. In Arts > Smithsoni... [Read More]

» The long tail of software from Vidar Hokstad's random musings
I've just finished reading Bnoopy: The long tail of software. Millions of Markets of Dozens. and I highly recommend it. The idea of a long tail is not new, but was popularized by Chris Anderson of Wired. The concept contrasts... [Read More]

Tracked on March 13, 2005 at 11:53 AM

» Search's Long Tail from Search Engine Watch Blog
If you've somehow missed discussion of "The Long Tail," it's a reference to a landmark article of the same name by Wired editor Chris Anderson that ran last October. It covered how the media and entertainment industries will succeed not... [Read More]

Tracked on March 14, 2005 at 02:12 PM

» Troubles at Google Adwords? from Goyami
I have come to realize that there may be some troubles at Google Adwords. To explain I need to give you some background. I feel that Google like's Todd as a customer much more than they like me these days.... [Read More]

Tracked on April 21, 2005 at 07:10 AM

» Weblog Review: The Long Tail from Notes from the (Legal) Underground
Weblog of the Week: The Long Tail Why I Like It: The Long Tail weblog was created by Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired, as a sort of companion to his October 2004 Wired article about the Internet, [Read More]

Tracked on April 23, 2005 at 04:56 AM

» Google Classic vs. Google Home from Alex de Carvalho
The debate is now on over Google's introduction this weekend of its personalized home page. (Remember New Coke?) ... Do you like it simple? Or do you like it flavored (sweeter)? Well, now you have a choice between [Read More]

Tracked on May 24, 2005 at 07:27 AM

» The even longer tail and the Adwords API from Emergent Properties
At first, the Google Adwords API doesn’t really seem like much, just a way to write simple programs to do some automating of tasks that are already pretty easy. I’ve bought ads on Google before, and it’s really fairly straightforwar... [Read More]

There was a piece on National Public Radio on 16 Feb (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4502046) that talked about how the internet is transforming China's economy. The part that struck me as the Long Tail component was the story of the business-to-business advertising web site that is gaining literally thousands of companies per week and allowing companies to find each other (in China and internationally) in a way that completely bypassed the traditional wine-and-dine-and-graft local business culture. It's astonishing.

Search Engine Optimization optimizes the content of website and build link popularity so that the website can achieve high ranking and visibility in several search engines.Seo Services India can not only provide SEO Services but also guide for maintaining the top position in Leading Search Engines for keywords.

Anyway, love to have a coffee about this one day and debate it...great
exploration of a topic ad agencies should be having more of...sometimes posing
the question is more important than having the right answer. Cheerssohbetsohbet mynet

Searchboth.net is the first site to place google and yahoo side by side on one split screen. The web site takes the user's query and creates a browser window with two frames, with the results from Yahoo! on one side and those from google on the other. It has completely end up the hassles involved while searching different search engines at the same time.

The key to adwords optimization is attracting quality visitors that will result in a click, sale, or opt-in. 1. Inner Salemanship mindset which not how many words you say but how do you say it which uncover the head-turning HOOK that will reel in customers like crazy. To think deeply like the prospect.

It’s an interesting method oto make use of Google Analytics for keyword research, which is very practicable.Long tail keywords are always formed around some core two-word phrase that is more competitive. With other words combined at such phrases, we would know which long tails are more popular.Also, the source of traffic with those phrases are important. We may be able to tweak the phrase a bit to get more targeted traffic too. For instance, if they are from a blog and the name we’ve chosen for ourselves (in form of a keyphrase), we will be able to change it next time!

FREE was available in all digital forms--ebook, web book, and audiobook--for free shortly after the hardcover was published on July 7th. The ebook and web book were free for a limited time and limited to certain geographic regions as determined by each national publisher; the unabridged MP3 audiobook (get zip file here) will remain free forever, available in all regions.